Police in Britain have arrested a man under antiterrorism laws at BBC headquarters.

The man identified as Abu Nusaybah was detained by the counterterrorism police on May 25.

Earlier he had told the BBC's flagship "Newsnight" program that his friend Michael Adebolajo, one of two suspects in the horrific killing of an unarmed British soldier, was approached by intelligence officers.

Nusaybah claimed that British counterterrorism officials wanted to recruit Adebolajo after he returned from a stay in Kenya six months ago.

London's Metropolitan Police said it had arrested a 31-year-old man on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."

Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are suspected of killing soldier Lee Rigby in broad daylight on May 22 in the southeast London district of Woolwich.

Police shot and injured them minutes after Rigby's killing. Both men remain under armed guard at two London hospitals.